Natural hazards · Placitas

Placitas, NM natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Placitas comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is low for a U.S. community. Flood insurance has paid 1 claim here since 2022.

FEMA National Risk Index, December 2025 · OpenFEMA claims, aid & declarations

Expected damage

How exposed is Placitas?

Low

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Placitas to be higher than in 36% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding and wildfires.

Inland flooding66%Wildfire16%Earthquakes7%Everything else11%

By hazard

What Placitas faces

Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how that compares with the rest of the country.

Inland flooding

66% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 49% of U.S. places

Recorded about 2 times a year in the area

Wildfire

16% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 96% of U.S. places

Earthquakes

7% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 68% of U.S. places

Lower here

TornadoesHailIce stormsWinter weatherCold wavesHeat wavesLandslidesStrong windLightningDroughtAvalanches

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesTsunamisVolcanic activity

Flood risk changes street by street. Check a specific address on FEMA’s flood map, and ask about flood insurance before you buy.

Flood insurance claims

Does Placitas flood?

Every paid claim on a federal flood insurance policy in Placitas, from FEMA’s records.

1paid claims since 2022

$19Kpaid to owners

0homes flooded more than once

20222026

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Placitas isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.

Insurance rates: Sandoval County.

Disasters that hit Placitas

Federal disasters declared here

None of the disasters declared for Sandoval County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Placitas itself in FEMA’s records.

Brought FEMA money into PlacitasDeclared for Sandoval County only

Sandoval County has had 18 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often fires and severe storms.

Around Placitas

Placitas and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Bernalillomostly inland floodingVery high

Placitasmostly inland floodingLow

Santa Ana Pueblomostly inland floodingLow

About these numbers

How to read this page

An average, not a forecastFEMA’s National Risk Index estimates the damage 18 kinds of natural hazards cause in a typical year, from decades of records and models. A quiet decade can follow a bad year.

Compared by rate“Higher than N%” compares yearly damage as a share of what’s here, so a big city isn’t rated riskier just for having more buildings. Placitas covers 2 census tracts, combined by population.

Money that reached townFlood claims are matched to Placitas’s own flood-insurance community (here, the census tracts inside it); household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Placitas. FEMA’s model follows property values, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.

FEMA’s expected losses across Placitas total about $2.2M a year, counting buildings, people and crops.

Sources: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025); OpenFEMA: NFIP redacted claims, multiple-loss properties, community status book and residential penetration rates, housing assistance (owners and renters), public assistance funded projects, hazard mitigation properties and disaster declarations. Census tracts: U.S. Census Bureau.